Tseng Y. Ming, head of
the Taipei Trade and Economic Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar, talks about
the prospects and willingness of Taiwan to contribute to the international
community.

Congratulations
on the 99^th National Day of Taiwan. There were many familiar faces
in the celebration, including MPs.

Thank you. First of all, I
want to say that since my coming here, Mongolian and Taiwanese ties have
greatly strengthened.  That’s why, and
also because we did not celebrate this important event last year because of
natural catastrophe and flood problems,
this year we are celebrating two years of National Day. It was nice.
Personally, I am very happy to have made many Mongolian friends who are sharing
with me the common target of promoting bilateral relations between Mongolia and Taiwan.

Cooperation between
parliaments of both sides is developing rapidly. I am very happy to say that,
in January this year, our Parliament established a Friendly to Mongolia Club. The
Mongolian Parliament reciprocated with a Friendly to Taiwan Club in May, which has
11 members, including senior parliamentarians. As for the club in Taiwan,
there are more than 20 MPs. The two clubs will contribute much to the future
cooperation. So the parliamentarians are becoming more interested in Taiwanese
affairs and are working to improve bilateral relations.

What
about the non-political sectors? What have you achieved in fields such as
economic cooperation?

We organized many important
activities cosponsored by Mongolia
and Taiwan
during this period. Among these, of course, was the trade bazaar in September
at Misheel Expo Center, where Taiwan sent
a large group of delegates. We are happy to see that Mongolians’ interest in
Taiwanese products is increasing. This is significant for bilateral ties.

Many Mongolian friends are
willing to see more of Taiwan’s advanced technology and computer products. We
have annual activities to exhibit our computer products in Taipei. We hope to hold similar exhibitions
here in Mongolia, so that our friends here do not need to fly to Taiwan. This
is one of our priorities. I am happy to report that one of our more successful
construction companies, K&T, has
joined the Mongolian Government’s 100,000 Apartments project. We now have just one
percent of the construction sector, but hope to reach 15 percent before long. Taiwanese builders
have sold many apartments to Mongolian friends who are interested in their
style and quality of construction. K&T will
hold a computer exhibition on the first floor of their office soon.  This is just one example of the budding
bilateral cooperation.

How
are Taiwan’s international relations, excluding Mongolia? For example, the
relations between China and Taiwan?

We have good interaction and
cooperation between Taiwan and mainland China, and have signed 14 agreements.
We call China the Chinese
mainland because Taiwan
is Republic of China. We are actually also representing China. So there is one China
but two different interpretations. They call “One China”, we call “two
interpretations”. Now, both sides, including the governments and the people,
are more interested than earlier in developing mutually beneficial
collaboration. There are lots of areas where we can cooperate.

Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are working for mutually
beneficial cooperation. In Mongolia also, the Government of course, but also
NGOs and others should take this golden opportunity to develop beneficial
cooperation in many fields.

I think two fields are very
important. One is, we should expedite the possibility of direct flights. This
can start with chartered flights, and these prove to be profitable for both
sides, then we can go for direct flights. That would make for easier travelling
for people, including students, intellectuals and government officials, as well
as for transporting goods. This is one thing which we should try hard.

The second one is visa
facilitation. We can facilitate the procedures of issuing visas etc. We can
make it easier and convenient for people to apply for visas. This way, it will
be easier for travelling from here to there and from there to here. But until
today, I regret to say that the Mongolian side hasn’t taken any concrete steps
in this area. We issue visas directly on passports but the Mongolian office in
Taipei issue the visa as a separate sheet which is easy to lose. Business
people and students always complain that it is very inconvenient. It also adds
to the cost for the Mongolian side. So we hope that your respected Government will
take a favorable decision to reciprocate our practice. Besides, we issue visas
in Ulaanbaatar, while your office in Taipei just puts its stamp on the visa
paper which is issued in Bangkok. Bangkok is in Thailand. The stamp should be
issued in Taipei. This is
nothing political. It has nothing to do with China.
If the Mongolian side takes it seriously to strengthen Mongolian-Taiwanese
cooperation, this should be changed. 

In
our previous interview, you said that Taiwan
wants to have the status of an observer in two international organizations. Has
there been any progress?

Taiwan is
very practical. Our ultimate goal is UN membership, but for now, our main interest
is to become member of non-Governmental, but more functional, international
organizations. We are very interested to participate in two such organizations
in particular. One is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) and the other the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). We
choose these two as both are totally non-political and there are no boundaries.
ICAO, for example, is a civil flights cooperation convention. Taiwan operates
many flights in Asia, from and to our capital city, Taipei, and Kaohsiung. If
the international community cares about flight security, Taiwan should not be kept
out of this convention. At the summit on climate change, President Elbegdorj
emphasized that Mongolia is willing to do more and cooperate with all members
of the international community. Among them Taiwan is very important. So Taiwan is very happy and would like to cooperate
with Mongolia. We only hope
that Mongolian Government would just support Taiwanese participation, if not in
UN, but in other conventions and organizations. If it is difficult in some way,
Mongolia could at least not actively oppose our efforts. We hope to receive
Mongolian Government support in the future for many areas.

Have
you received any response to your request to become the member of these
organizations?

Yes. We are going have an
observer status to begin with. We are trying to participate as an NGO, not as a
Government. This will make us less functional and less efficient in the
organization. If there are political problems, we can use other names. For example,
Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002 not in its national name of ROC or Taiwan, but as
the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. We can use
different names for different organizations because Taiwan is very pragmatic
and very flexible. More countries are supporting us this way. China, for
example, is an onlooker. They don’t automatically participate. Most of the
countries express support. So we very much need Mongolian support.

More
and more students are heading for Taiwanese universities. What makes Taiwan so
attractive for Mongolian students? Is it the scholarships?

We consider young people as
the treasure for the future of a country. It is very good that there is a
steady increase in the number of both Mongolian students in Taiwan and of
Taiwanese young people here. Once Mongolian students get a scholarship to study
in Taiwan, they will know more about the country, and when they come back, and
work for the government or NGOs and civil organizations, they will contribute
more to promotion of bilateral interests and friendship. This is one thing that
we must support. This year we issued visas to about 165 new students, taking
the number of Mongolian students in Taiwan to over 550. The number should be
closer to 600 by the end of this year.

A couple of months ago,
nearly 20 Taiwanese universities that offer good scholarships, full or partial,
came here to collect and encourage Mongolian students. Also, a Taiwanese
education center has opened in Otgontenger University. The staff there say more
and more Mongolian young people are showing interest in studying in Taiwan.
Taiwanese universities offer many types of scholarships. I would like take this
opportunity to encourage Mongolian students and scholars to apply to our
institutions. This year, over 100 scholarships were given to Mongolian PhD and
Masters Degree students. As always, unique majors are easier to win
scholarships than common ones.